The Red Tent by Anita Diamant :: Red Tent Anita Diamant Essays

The Red Tent by Anita DiamantThe author and her timesAnita Diamant, author of the historic fiction novel, The Red Tent, is a devout Jewish-American living in Newtonville, mommy with her husband and daughter, Emilia. She has written five books about contemporary Jewish life, The Red Tent being her first novel. Diamant may have been influenced by the recent resurgence of creating Midrashim, or stories that attempt to explain the Torah by examining its subtexts. Modern women have taken a keen interest in this practice, hoping to expand on the minute biblical mentions of women like Dinah.Form, structure and plotThe Red Tent is organized in a seemingly complicated yet beautifully simple way. There atomic number 18 three main sections Dinahs mothers story, her childhood, and her life in Egypt. Each is further divided into chapters.Although the story is divided into sections, the plot progresses intact. The exposition consists of Jacobs arrival and subsequent marriages to Leah, Rachel, Zilpah and Bilhah. Twelve of xiii children are born, including Dinah, narrator and only daughter. Dinah grows up helping her aunt/mother Rachel, who brings her to the city of Shechem.The initial incident occurs when Simon and Levi, two of Dinahs oldest brothers, enter the city of Shechem and put to death all(prenominal) of the resident men, including Dinahs beloved husband, Shalem. Cursing her entire family, a pregnant Dinah is taken to Egypt by Shalems mother, Re-nefer. In the rising action the child is born, a boy who Re-nefer label Re-mose and raises as her own. He becomes a superior Egyptian scribe, and is eventually assigned to the kings right-hand-man. In a climactic irony, Re-moses employer turns out to be Joseph, Dinahs youngest brother. The truth about Shalems murder is revealed to Re-mose, who in turn vows to avenge his fathers death on Josephs head. He is thwarted by Dinah, who convinces him to remove to the north. Joseph and Dinah attend the death of Jacob in the fal ling action, both kind-hearted the wrongs committed against them in their fathers name. The story concludes with Dinahs death.Point of ViewDiamant has Dinah effectively tell her story from three different narrative perspectives. The bulk of the novel is related by Dinah in first person, providing a private look at growing up and personal tragedy It seemed that I was the last person alive in the world (Diamant 203). Dinah tells the story that she says was mangled in the bible.Understandably, Dinahs relation of her mothers stories is done in third person narrative, since she herself was not yet born.